A research trip

Really.

I’ll be on a plane winging my way from the middle of the U.S. to New York City today for a week’s stay. Ostensibly it’s to see my daughter and son-in-law (and grandpuppy) plus all of the sights, but really it’s for research purposes. Really.

My novel, The Sleep of Reason, takes place in New York. Much of it happens upstate on the private estate of a very wealthy man, but some key scenes happen in Manhattan. I’ve written most of those scenes from memory, having visited Manhattan several times in years past. A particularly fun chapter occurs within the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so of course I’m eager to visit that wonderful institution as soon as I can to soak up more impressions and more or less firm up the writing. I also have a few Manhattan street scenes, and if I can grab a bit of authentic texture to enhance those, that will be fine too. If we get the chance, I hope we can get to Battery Park at the southern tip of the island since I have two scenes there. All legitimate research, mind you.

When I started writing the novel, I didn’t have this trip planned. In fact, at the time (and through much of the writing of the novel), my daughter and son-in-law (and grandpuppy) lived on the other side of the country, not far from the Pacific Ocean. We were scheduled to travel there for the visit about now, and while that would have been pleasant, I never intended to set my novel in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Then my son-in-law took a wonderful new job that called for them to move across the nation. We were able to transfer our airline tickets. And serendipity arrived.

Perhaps I’ll be able to make some interesting posts about my adventures in New York, but I don’t think I’m going to get much fiction writing done for the next week.

One Comment on “A research trip”

It’s always fun to visit locations not as a tourist or a customer or a worker, but as a writer. It’s a unique experience.

My stories are set in “Anycity, USA” so I don’t have to travel anywhere. Most of my settings are generic locations, but when I do visit a place that is a location of a scene that I am writing, I find myself paying much closer attention to all of the little details and sensory experiences that I would otherwise miss.